The story ran its usual course: Self-appointed “community leaders” and “activists”—in this case, presente.org—unveiled the obligatory “online petition” demanding an apology from Williams.

That’s when things got confusing. An apology was issued and promptly accepted by one Rev. Jarrett Maupin, who’d been “organizing a boycott” against Williams but now wants him to return to Phoenix and “show his commitment to the Latino community.” This is all pretty damn funny, since Maupin is black. (He’s also an Al Sharpton protégé, complete with legal troubles.)

But a few days later, Williams was on CNN claiming his publicist had issued an apology without his permission.

“I’m not allowed to [apologize],” he explained to anchor T. J. Holmes. “As a stand-up, the only thing I sell is uncensored thought. I’m not allowed, then, to come back the next day and apologize….If a person starts their heckling with ‘F*** America,’ then that gives me the right to defend my country.”

That was “Opie” of radio’s Opie & Anthony Show talking about the Carolla vs. GLAAD “controversy” and other recent—to coin a phrase—“wit hunts.” Topmost on everyone’s mind at the time was Tracy Morgan. Another flaky African-American comedian, Morgan was obliged to go on a pro-homosexual “awareness raising” apology tour after “joking” that if one of his children ever talked to him “in a gay voice,” he’d kill him.

Opie and Anthony railed against this booming new “business” of apologizing—let’s call it “Big Sorry”—and were joined by comic Jim Norton, who compared Morgan’s humiliating repentance road show to a slave auction in “the f***ing 1700 slavery days, where they held that poor bastard captive.”